Every Wednesday, hordes of warriors troop out to comic book stores across the country to pick up the releases of the week. The comic book industry has been riding the coattails of a boom period these past few years, heralded by the rise of Image Comics titles like Saga and financially successful reboot events like DC’s New 52 and Marvel Now. While the unprecedented amount of creative diversity spread throughout the medium means fantastic things for all comics readers, one of the more unfortunate side effects of this fervent growth is some fantastic comics inevitably slip through the cracks. When you have over a hundred titles hitting store shelves every week, some gems are always bound to be missed. That’s where we come in.

Whether these underdogs were once brightly shining stars now dimmed or never had their moment in the sun to begin with, these titles are worth checking out when you hit stores this week.

Alex J’s Picks:

Exit Generation #1

Writer: Sam Read Artist: Caio OliveiraCover: Ramon Villalobos

Publisher: Comixtribe

It’s 2055. Ninety percent of the world’s population have abandoned a resource-depleted Earth in search of a better home in the cosmos. Those left behind find themselves in an unexpected paradise – and Jack is bored out of his mind. He dreams of action inspired by 80’s movies and punk rock. But when a legion of carnivorous aliens arrive, Jack learns you should be careful what you wish for! Featuring covers by Ramon Villalobos (E is for Extinction) and connecting variants by Joe Mulvey (SCAM), Exit Generation is a breakneck sci-fi adventure!

Comixtribe is a publisher releasing original work from two comics creators that are on the rise: Sam Read and Caio Oliveira. This is Read’s second title, his first being Find. The two creators are on the rise with this brand new title from the publisher featuring future bread from ‘80s action films and endless adventure.

Wild’s End: Enemy Within #1

Writer: Dan Abnett Artist: I.N.J. Culbard

Publisher: Boom! Studios

What’s to Love: The first Wild’s End miniseries kept us in constant suspense with its unlikely mash-up of War of the Worlds and The Wind in the Willows. We’re holding our collective breaths once again as author Dan Abnett (Guardians of the Galaxy) and illustrator I.N.J. Culbard (The King in Yellow) are set to play with the paranoia and ‘enemy amongst us’ conspiracy theories prevalent in stories we love like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The X-Files. What It Is: As Clive, Susan, Fawkes, and the other survivors of the alien invasion of Lower Crowchurch try to cope with what just happened to their small town, the military arrives in an attempt to cover up the ‘incident.’ Town residents are immediately detained, questioned, and treated with suspicion. Are they alien spies, collaborators, sympathizers? Clive and the rest will need to escape imprisonment if they’re to get the word out and warn the rest of the world in case the aliens return.

Dan Abnett and I.N.J. Culbard create special comics when they work together. The two created a fascinating character study about humanity and zombies in their comic: The New Deadwardians. The science fiction-based post-apocalyptic animal-fueled charm of Wild’s End is really hard to deny, and worth the attention based on the pedigree of the both creators works alone. This series deserves your attention and money based on silly concept alone.

Shield: 50th Anniversary #1

A mission 50 years in the making! When a villain from the past shows up in the present day, Nick Fury is forced to team-up with Nick Fury Sr.! Will the Nick Fury of the present be able to work alongside his father? One-Shot /Rated T+

Oh Nick Fury Sr., we support you. We support any title that you are currently in. We also support that Marvel commissions one-shots with Cyborg writer David Walker covering the material with Nick Fury Jr. and Sr.. These are characters that we simply don’t see that much in current continuity. Post-Jim Steranko, it’s rare to see a comic book starring only Nick Fury, master spy extraordinaire. While this may not be in demand for your dollar as previous titles, put your mother where your mouth is and support Walker and the two Fury’s.

Alex L’s Pick:

The Manhattan Projects: The Sun Beyond the Stars #3

Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Nick Pitarra

Publisher: Image Comics

‘UNRELIABLE’ If you’re depending on a lying robot not to get you into trouble with an intergalactic criminal science organization called the Library, then always bet on Black. The greatest FEEL GOOD, BAD SCIENCE book in the long history of man returns in THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS: THE SUN BEYOND THE STARS.

Before Secret Wars, East of West, and The Avengers catapulted Jonathan Hickman to the very forefront of comics writers, Hickman was building a niche but loyal and fervent following through stylistically affected books like The Nightly News and Pax Romana. The Manhattan Projects initially appeared to be strong follow up to these works, creating a zany but creatively interesting world filled with cloned geniuses and metaphorically and literally warped scientists. Unfortunately, the luster has fallen off this project over the years, and sales estimates place the recent issues of The Manhattan Projects at barely above 10k, acceptable for a smaller image title but certainly not befitting of one as interesting and fun as this one has been.